Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Yuval Keshtcher “ The opportunities for UX writers are just going to increase” — Kathryn Strauss

A series of interviews with top UX writers of product teams from all over the world.

Check out the last part of the series

This time I am hosting Kathryn Strauss, a senior UX writer from the powerful drag and drop website builder tool — Weebly.

“UX writing is a great career for anyone in the humanities” — Kathryn Strauss

In one single word what does microcopy mean to you?

Clarity. Microcopy is all about clearing away the cobwebs that confuse and confound users.

How did you get into UX writing?

My career has come full circle. I started out as a technical writer with a background in English and Linguistics. From there, I morphed into an online-help developer, an information architect, and then a UX designer before transitioning into UX writing.

I’m currently the senior UX writer for Weebly, a company that helps users create online stores and personal websites.

“I get a panoramic view of projects across the product platform.” — Kathryn Strauss

Where do you find inspiration for the projects you are working on?

My wonderful, curious, determined users give me inspiration every day. And, they give me words. The language I hear as users work through prototypes in testing often becomes the language I use on the interface. The user’s own words can be much simpler and palatable than our internal terminology.

More inspiration comes from the brilliant designers, managers, and engineers who support what I do. An authentic and positive relationship with co-workers is the secret for success as a UX writer.

Tell me about a day in your life as a UX writer?

Each day starts with a few minutes looking over my “Intentions” document, where I track both personal and professional goals. After that brief (very brief) moment of reflection, the day gets going quickly!

I’m the sole writer for multiple squads with embedded designers, so I get a panoramic view of projects across the product platform. I spend about 20% of my time carving out the ecosystem that helps me do my job more effectively: a product thesaurus, controlled vocabulary, my writing wiki, common patterns, and the product style guide. Throughout the day, I field ad hoc questions from Slack, mostly for microcopy, and I work via Jira for large design projects.

Weebly invests heavily into user research, and I attend as many user testing sessions as possible. It keeps me grounded and reminds me of why I do the work I do.

What is your method for finding Weebly brand’s voice?

I work closely with our brand and marketing team as well as the customer service teams to make sure our voice is aligned at all stages of the customer journey.

“Our voice is aligned at all stages of the customer journey.” —Kathryn Strauss

As a product writer, what is your super power?

My background as a UX designer! Hands-on experience creating UX deliverables showed me not just the importance of good copy but where I fit in the process of integrating copy with design.

“UX writers articulate complicated concepts in simple terms.” — Kathryn Strauss

can you tell about a challenge you’ve faced recently and how did you overcame it?

For a recent onboarding flow, I was struggling to get just the right tone. Too whimsical and our users might not take us seriously. To stiff and they might bail. So, I wrote five different versions of the onboarding language, ranging in tone from utilitarian and straightforward to happy — almost giddy — to have the user on board! First, I sent the versions out to internal folks including designers and product managers to get their feedback.

That narrowed it down to 2 choices. I had a good instinct for which to go with, but I wanted some data to back me up. I did a short comparison test with around 100 people on usabilityhub.com, and got great feedback. My instinct was right, and the final version ended up being warm and conversational, just the right tone for welcoming users to a new feature!

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Do you think that UX writing would allow more writers to enter the tech industry? How?

Absolutely! UX writing is a great career for anyone in the humanities, and the opportunities are just going to increase. The tech industry needs people who work from a place of empathy and who can articulate complicated concepts in simple terms.

3 useful tips for people that want to get into the field of UX writing?

Read good literature, not just technical articles. Good readers generally make good writers.
Try out other tech roles first, then transition into UX writing. If you’ve worked as a project manager, a developer, or a designer before becoming a writer, you’ll understand the lingo, the pacing of deliverables, and the collaboration required.
If you’re in the Bay Area, attend the Meetup group that I recently organized: San Francisco UX Writers Meetup. We have over 330 members, fantastic speakers, and hands-on activities that provide a good introduction to the world of UX writing. Also, I run a Twitter group @ux_writers that provides a platform for writers, content strategists, and designers.

if you had a list of ‘best-kept secrets’ you’d recommend, which would you include and why?

Microcopy: The Complete Guide by Kinneret Yifrah is my go-to reference book not just for microcopy but for great principles around voice and usability.

Just for fun, give us your fave microcopy example?

I love this micocopy from one of our own Weebly ecommerce merchants, Wigglesteps! So clever. The socks are pretty awesome too!

That’s it for today!

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Microcopy & UX Writing: Weebly was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Microcopy & UX Writing: Weebly

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